Vikings @ Ravens post game

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S197
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by S197 »

TSonn wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 9:07 am I gotta say... another week I decided to not watch the Vikings and another Sunday where I didn't care that I didn't watch the Vikings.

Got half of a kitchen install done instead while checking ESPN gamecast every water break. I saw 14-3 and 24-10 and knew we'd lose it anyway because we've got "keep it close" Zimmer as our coach!

Watching the replays this morning - love seeing #26 run free - shades of Robert Smith for me. Why wasn't Ngwangwu playing much before this game?
Ngwangwu was on injured reserve until the Dallas game.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by CharVike »

VikingLord wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:48 am Painful stats this week:

Vikings - 13 first downs
Ravens - 36 first downs

Vikings - 52 total offensive plays
Ravens - 89 total offensive plays

Vikings - 318 yards of offense (187 passing, 131 rushing, much of which came on a single big run)
Ravens - 500 yards of offense (253 passing, 247 rushing :shock: :shock: :shock: - yes you read that right...)

Vikings - 23:40 Time of possession
Ravens - 46:04 Time of possession :shock: :shock: :shock:

This game should never have gone into overtime, but not because I think the Vikings were that close to winning it. Its the other way around. Take away the kickoff return for a TD, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near sending this into overtime. Take away the sketchy play by Jackson early where he was clearly a bit off, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near winning it, either. The fact it was so close was more a product of those two factors than the Vikings being competitive, because even a blind monkey can look at those stats and see just how uncompetitive they actually were. On BOTH sides of the ball.

There was one true deep passing attempt in the game. One.

The Ravens love to bring extra blitzers, and had several free runners all game. How did the Vikings respond? By sending their WRs into long routes and essentially giving Cousins however long it took for the free runner to reach him to get rid of it.

Defensively, they never took Jackson away. Rush four, try to contain him, but if not, he just took off over and over and over. Well, at least the Vikings didn't give up anything big down the field. Chose to die by a thousand paper cuts I guess.

And Harrison Smith - FU dude. You're emblematic of the crap player leadership on this team. Your decision to put your hair-brained personal choice nonsense above your team cost you and likely cost them too. The non-vaccinated players on the Vikings at least aren't lying about their status, and they get credit for that, but the result of their decisions still affects their teammates and costs them games. This is your job. It's literally all you do. To be so irresponsible about it is unconscionable.

Waiting for the game here where Cousins tests positive and has to sit... Its coming as sure as the sun rises.
Teams can run on us with no problem. This defense is terrible. 2nd year in a row. Some defensive genius Zim is. Did Zim show that 247 number on his Monday press conference. I doubt it. We were facing a QB coming off a 48 pct completion rate his previous game. He's down for the count. Our guy is worthless but even he don't do that bad. But Zim allowed this stiff to do what ever he wanted. It's simple. Keep him in the pocket and the game is yours. I can't wait until they tell Zim to hit the road. This marshmallow DC we have also needs to hit the road. And yes H Smith needs to go also. Another waste of CAP. Oh well not a very good team. We will have plenty of CAP once these cap eaters (Smith, Pierce ect....) are cut. Hopefully there are some super stars in FA next year. That rarely happens but maybe it will next year.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by StumpHunter »

CharVike wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:55 am
VikingLord wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:48 am Painful stats this week:

Vikings - 13 first downs
Ravens - 36 first downs

Vikings - 52 total offensive plays
Ravens - 89 total offensive plays

Vikings - 318 yards of offense (187 passing, 131 rushing, much of which came on a single big run)
Ravens - 500 yards of offense (253 passing, 247 rushing :shock: :shock: :shock: - yes you read that right...)

Vikings - 23:40 Time of possession
Ravens - 46:04 Time of possession :shock: :shock: :shock:

This game should never have gone into overtime, but not because I think the Vikings were that close to winning it. Its the other way around. Take away the kickoff return for a TD, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near sending this into overtime. Take away the sketchy play by Jackson early where he was clearly a bit off, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near winning it, either. The fact it was so close was more a product of those two factors than the Vikings being competitive, because even a blind monkey can look at those stats and see just how uncompetitive they actually were. On BOTH sides of the ball.

There was one true deep passing attempt in the game. One.

The Ravens love to bring extra blitzers, and had several free runners all game. How did the Vikings respond? By sending their WRs into long routes and essentially giving Cousins however long it took for the free runner to reach him to get rid of it.

Defensively, they never took Jackson away. Rush four, try to contain him, but if not, he just took off over and over and over. Well, at least the Vikings didn't give up anything big down the field. Chose to die by a thousand paper cuts I guess.

And Harrison Smith - FU dude. You're emblematic of the crap player leadership on this team. Your decision to put your hair-brained personal choice nonsense above your team cost you and likely cost them too. The non-vaccinated players on the Vikings at least aren't lying about their status, and they get credit for that, but the result of their decisions still affects their teammates and costs them games. This is your job. It's literally all you do. To be so irresponsible about it is unconscionable.

Waiting for the game here where Cousins tests positive and has to sit... Its coming as sure as the sun rises.
Teams can run on us with no problem. This defense is terrible. 2nd year in a row. Some defensive genius Zim is. Did Zim show that 247 number on his Monday press conference. I doubt it. We were facing a QB coming off a 48 pct completion rate his previous game. He's down for the count. Our guy is worthless but even he don't do that bad. But Zim allowed this stiff to do what ever he wanted. It's simple. Keep him in the pocket and the game is yours. I can't wait until they tell Zim to hit the road. This marshmallow DC we have also needs to hit the road. And yes H Smith needs to go also. Another waste of CAP. Oh well not a very good team. We will have plenty of CAP once these cap eaters (Smith, Pierce ect....) are cut. Hopefully there are some super stars in FA next year. That rarely happens but maybe it will next year.
The defense through the first 7 games was 8th in scoring efficiency, 8th in yards per drive given up and 8th in TOP. I expect that number to go down with the best player on the defense out for the season, but it will likely end the season above average.

It has been really bad against the run all season, but then again we have faced the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th best rushing attacks. Overall though, the D is significantly improved over 2020 and it really isn't even debatable. When Zimmer has starting talent on his defense it is always good and this year is no exception.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by allday1991 »

CharVike wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:55 am
VikingLord wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:48 am Painful stats this week:

Vikings - 13 first downs
Ravens - 36 first downs

Vikings - 52 total offensive plays
Ravens - 89 total offensive plays

Vikings - 318 yards of offense (187 passing, 131 rushing, much of which came on a single big run)
Ravens - 500 yards of offense (253 passing, 247 rushing :shock: :shock: :shock: - yes you read that right...)

Vikings - 23:40 Time of possession
Ravens - 46:04 Time of possession :shock: :shock: :shock:

This game should never have gone into overtime, but not because I think the Vikings were that close to winning it. Its the other way around. Take away the kickoff return for a TD, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near sending this into overtime. Take away the sketchy play by Jackson early where he was clearly a bit off, and the Vikings aren't anywhere near winning it, either. The fact it was so close was more a product of those two factors than the Vikings being competitive, because even a blind monkey can look at those stats and see just how uncompetitive they actually were. On BOTH sides of the ball.

There was one true deep passing attempt in the game. One.

The Ravens love to bring extra blitzers, and had several free runners all game. How did the Vikings respond? By sending their WRs into long routes and essentially giving Cousins however long it took for the free runner to reach him to get rid of it.

Defensively, they never took Jackson away. Rush four, try to contain him, but if not, he just took off over and over and over. Well, at least the Vikings didn't give up anything big down the field. Chose to die by a thousand paper cuts I guess.

And Harrison Smith - FU dude. You're emblematic of the crap player leadership on this team. Your decision to put your hair-brained personal choice nonsense above your team cost you and likely cost them too. The non-vaccinated players on the Vikings at least aren't lying about their status, and they get credit for that, but the result of their decisions still affects their teammates and costs them games. This is your job. It's literally all you do. To be so irresponsible about it is unconscionable.

Waiting for the game here where Cousins tests positive and has to sit... Its coming as sure as the sun rises.
Teams can run on us with no problem. This defense is terrible. 2nd year in a row. Some defensive genius Zim is. Did Zim show that 247 number on his Monday press conference. I doubt it. We were facing a QB coming off a 48 pct completion rate his previous game. He's down for the count. Our guy is worthless but even he don't do that bad. But Zim allowed this stiff to do what ever he wanted. It's simple. Keep him in the pocket and the game is yours. I can't wait until they tell Zim to hit the road. This marshmallow DC we have also needs to hit the road. And yes H Smith needs to go also. Another waste of CAP. Oh well not a very good team. We will have plenty of CAP once these cap eaters (Smith, Pierce ect....) are cut. Hopefully there are some super stars in FA next year. That rarely happens but maybe it will next year.
Defensive master mind folks :lol:
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by Dmizzle0 »

Man, I'm still kinda down this week. What really hurts with these losses is that we have the talent but we still manage to get sent home with a big fat "L". If we all around sucked it would be a little different.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by CharVike »

Dmizzle0 wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:00 pm Man, I'm still kinda down this week. What really hurts with these losses is that we have the talent but we still manage to get sent home with a big fat "L". If we all around sucked it would be a little different.
Heading to the west coast is never a pleasure. Nothing is impossible but.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by CharVike »

StumpHunter wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:59 am
CharVike wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:55 am
Teams can run on us with no problem. This defense is terrible. 2nd year in a row. Some defensive genius Zim is. Did Zim show that 247 number on his Monday press conference. I doubt it. We were facing a QB coming off a 48 pct completion rate his previous game. He's down for the count. Our guy is worthless but even he don't do that bad. But Zim allowed this stiff to do what ever he wanted. It's simple. Keep him in the pocket and the game is yours. I can't wait until they tell Zim to hit the road. This marshmallow DC we have also needs to hit the road. And yes H Smith needs to go also. Another waste of CAP. Oh well not a very good team. We will have plenty of CAP once these cap eaters (Smith, Pierce ect....) are cut. Hopefully there are some super stars in FA next year. That rarely happens but maybe it will next year.
The defense through the first 7 games was 8th in scoring efficiency, 8th in yards per drive given up and 8th in TOP. I expect that number to go down with the best player on the defense out for the season, but it will likely end the season above average.

It has been really bad against the run all season, but then again we have faced the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th best rushing attacks. Overall though, the D is significantly improved over 2020 and it really isn't even debatable. When Zimmer has starting talent on his defense it is always good and this year is no exception.
We blew two 14 point leads. They drove down the field with ease for the win. This wasn't against a Stauback clone either. He can be stuffed which was proved his previous game.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by VikingLord »

StumpHunter wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:59 am It has been really bad against the run all season, but then again we have faced the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th best rushing attacks. Overall though, the D is significantly improved over 2020 and it really isn't even debatable. When Zimmer has starting talent on his defense it is always good and this year is no exception.
"Good" is kind of a relative term when it comes to the 2021 Vikings defense.

Statistically, I think they look better than they've played for critical stretches of games where they've fallen flat and given up fairly easy scoring drives to opponents.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by psjordan »

Disclaimer: All of the following falls under the category of “I have no way of knowing for sure, but it sure seems this way to me”. And it is admittedly a ramble.

I find a lot of our “fan conclusions” a little bit shy of actually getting to the core of issues TBH.

If something crops up as a surprise (Cousins gets hurt/Covid, etc.) I can cut all the slack needed to the coaching staff. If Cook is out (as has happened), I give the coaches both a pass and credit if and when Mattison fills in more or less adequately. If a guy is injury-prone you need to have a solid plan B, but still, a surprise injury is tough to overcome.

But.

We all (fans, coaches) have had several years of watching this fail-to-proliferate-at-critical-times offense. It is NOT a surprise that we are slobbering around in the second half of games with multiple three-and-outs at critical times. Plenty of blame to go around, not here to dissect that (BTW I do think we miss Irv Smith and Kyle Rudolph greatly in those situations).

But.

If you are the HC and you KNOW those are our offensive tendencies based on current players and OC, do you sit and wait for another post-game loss press conference to say “Golly gee, I don’t know what’s wrong with our offense”, or “looks like our defense was gassed out there”?

If you have zero clue how to fix the offense (damning enough), would you not have even tried to plan/address what it would take on defense to survive those scenarios? And would you not assign a higher “we’re likely to get injuries” factor to a defense where you just brought in a load of older vets? So we should plan accordingly? Would you not:

Beef up our defensive depth by getting younger players snaps early in the season, even if only in practice but with 1st team? You can’t tell me all the vets on D need all the 1st team reps. Get young players meaningful snaps EVEN IF IT COSTS YOU IN THE SHORT TERM.
Beef up our strength and conditioning, so less players get gassed?
Maybe, since you know our D may be out there longer than the O, maybe put together some REALLY CREATIVE 4th and short plays to at least sustain a drive or two? I mean realistically, you may do this MAX twice per game, meaning you kind of need 15-20 such plays. Is that impossible?
Maybe get a little more ballsy and creative inside the red zone?
Maybe get a far better handle on when to call timeouts?

I understand all the frustration and to some extent all the “I’m right about this and you’re not” type posts on here.

Let’s face it. Calling our offense “The Problem” while our defense gives up 500 yards is a bit silly.

Calling our defense “The Problem” for not winning a game we were up 17-3 and 24-10 but getting TOP killed is likewise just as silly.

The ENTIRE REASON for a front office and coaching staff is to select and coach a group of players to win games.

Once the players are selected, good or bad, it is up to the coaching staff to do a COMPLETE ENOUGH job for us to win games. That includes identifying and scheming around any talent issues as best we can.

Seems simplistic.

It seems obvious to me that neither our offense, defense or even special teams are performing at a level that would allow us to win substantially more games than we lose, on a consistent long-term basis.

I hate to break the news, but no one player on the roster has control over all those aspects of the team.

Our coaches supposedly coach. Our GM and his staff supposedly select above-average players.

I see a fair amount of talent on our roster. Where we don’t have “average” talent, my expectations are that the coaching staff will make up the difference. For instance knowing our 10-year? history selecting OL, one would think we’d be smart enough to hire the best OL coach money could possibly buy. Nope, retread alley for us.

We get outmuscled in EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. One would think we would hire the best strength and conditioning staff money could possibly buy, and update any facilities that need updating along the way. Nope, not us.

I don’t follow every NFL team in detail, but in terms of coaching I would go as far as saying we are in the bottom 20% WHEN THE BAROMETER IS “CHANCES TO WIN A SUPER BOWL”.

That includes formulating practice plans to make players better as well as game-planning and in-game strategies. IMO our staff is woeful at almost all aspects, with very few exceptions. Cousins is what Cousins is. At this stage he’s not a freaking surprise. Not having a top notch OC, game plan and ability to adjust on the fly is the definition of insanity if you are tied to Cousins for $100M+.

It seems to me that Cousins is the only QB in the league that sits on the bench by himself after the VAST majority of stalled drives. Janocko may be great at holding hands in practice, but he sure seems COMPLETELY useless in-game. To their last game together, Josh McDaniels sat with TOM FREAKING BRADY after every stalled drive and went over what went wrong and what adjustments to make. Not us. We let Kirk sit alone and sing to himself the famous BB King “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother, and She Might Be Jiving Too”.

Fire away and blame individual players all you like. The proof is in the total mediocrity of this team for years and years with the same ups and the exact same downs. Our coaching staff seems to be unable to address any of the KNOWN shortcomings of this team.

Certain players may be garbage in your eyes, but the coaches stink from a mile away. GM has a bit of smell to him as well.

And now we have COVID issues. Superb.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

Texas Vike wrote: Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:01 pm
J. Kapp 11 wrote: Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:30 pm Here's the other thing. Third and long against a Wink Martindale defense. Guess what he's going to do, Klint? He's going to bring the house ... every time. And what do we do? Send everybody out on long-developing routes, so Cousins has no chance. The one time you WANT somebody short, we have nobody short. For God's sake, Kubiak, do you even watch film of your opponent?
...
All in all, a game that has become typical for 2021. Play just well enough to get the lead, then watch the implosion. It's exhausting.
Klint is the worst and this point you raise illustrates his abilities very well. It's obvious to you and me. How can it not be to a guy who does this for a living?

I've gotten to the point that I find myself cheering AGAINST the Vikings once they have let their opponent get close and then take the lead. I feel bad for guys like Kendricks, who deserve a win (or a real team)... so then I feel bad for cheering for a loss, but ultimately, I want them to lose because we absolutely need to shuffle the deck.
Once again this week, I was watching the Purple Daily podcast. Tuesday is Alex Boone day, and it's always incredibly informative. Say what you will about his time with the Vikings ... this guy knows football, and he knows O-line play.

What I'm about to outline here is parroting what he said, to the best of my ability. I'm certainly no expert. It's the 3rd-and-9 play in overtime that you and I have been talking about, where Martindale sends the house and we throw incomplete, essentially losing the game.

It's is a great example of what is wrong with this offense.

Let's start with a screenshot. It tells all.

Image

First, take a count of all the Ravens who are rushing the passer. There are seven. SEVEN! It's insane. There are two on the right, three on the left, and two in the middle. Seven rushers.

Incredibly enough, the Vikings have seven guys in to block. The problem is that the Vikings have failed to slide protection to the correct side.

Cleveland and Cole both have a hat on a hat. To the right, there are two more Ravens rushers against THREE Vikings blockers — Conklin, O'Neill, and Udoh, who is pretty much doing nothing. I mean, that's a problem, right? Seven rushers, seven blockers, but Udoh standing there with nothing to do! To the left, there are three Ravens rushers against just two Vikings, Darrisaw and Cook. So while the Vikings have enough guys blocking to pick up all the Ravens rushers, they failed to identify where they would be coming from. As you can see, there are two rushers and only one Dalvin Cook to pick them up.

According to Boone, the center should have identified where the blitz was coming from and made this call at the line. There was some code he would have called out (very cool to hear Boone talk about it) that would have slid protection to the left. You'd end up with Cleveland taking the guy in the photo who's free on the inside, Cole taking the guy Cleveland is blocking, and Udoh taking the guy Cole is blocking. But Cole didn't do that. He didn't ID where the blitz was coming from, thus not making the call. Therefore, you ended up with a free rusher in Cousins' face, causing the incompletion.

But Cole's failure to ID didn't have to result in disaster.

In that case, COUSINS could have (should have) ID'd it and changed protection at the line. Tom Brady would have done that. Aaron Rodgers would have done that. Any 10-year veteran NFL quarterback would have done that. But not Cousins. He ALSO failed.

Next, look at the middle of the field. There is NOBODY from the Ravens in the area code. All you see is one safety and the back judge. Yet all our receivers run down the field on "go" routes, as called by Kubiak. According to Boone, this should have been an obvious hot read, identified and called by Cousins at the line. If somebody would have run a slant and Cousins got him the ball, he would have run a long, long way. The Vikings easily pick up the first down and likely win the game. But that didn't happen.

Finally, if Cousins was so confused that he didn't know what to do, he could have called timeout, since the Vikings had one remaining. It would have been a rookie thing to do, but he could have done it. Instead, he played the "I just work here" card and ran the play that Kubiak called, exactly as he called it.

So in a nutshell, you start with a silly play call that sent four receivers on "go" routes against a blitz-happy defense. You've also got the center failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to check to a hot route, and Cousins failing to call timeout. It's a total fail by the entire Vikings offense, from coach to quarterback to offensive line.

Is it any wonder this team sucks on offense?
Image
Go ahead. I dare you.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by psjordan »

J. Kapp 11 wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:00 pm So in a nutshell, you start with a silly play call that sent four receivers on "go" routes against a blitz-happy defense. You've also got the center failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to check to a hot route, and Cousins failing to call timeout. It's a total fail by the entire Vikings offense, from coach to quarterback to offensive line.

Is it any wonder this team sucks on offense?
Folks can blame Cousins or Cole, and yes they share culpability, but having coached for years and years this is by FAR a coaching issue.

Whether Cousins' attitude is "hey just doing my job man", he's "just doing it Zim's way like I was told to do" or he truly cannot recognize where a blitz is coming from are all 99% coaching issues.

Zimmer makes $5M a year to correct this stuff - either find a way to correct the attitude or spend 20 hours a week going through film with our QB's and OL JUST to identify how blitzes are disguised. And/or give our QB free reign at the LOS.

As a HC, you do NOT simply sit through this stuff week after week, hoping it results in something other than a loss. Hoping ain't a good plan man.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by CharVike »

psjordan wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 5:25 pm
J. Kapp 11 wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:00 pm So in a nutshell, you start with a silly play call that sent four receivers on "go" routes against a blitz-happy defense. You've also got the center failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to check to a hot route, and Cousins failing to call timeout. It's a total fail by the entire Vikings offense, from coach to quarterback to offensive line.

Is it any wonder this team sucks on offense?
Folks can blame Cousins or Cole, and yes they share culpability, but having coached for years and years this is by FAR a coaching issue.

Whether Cousins' attitude is "hey just doing my job man", he's "just doing it Zim's way like I was told to do" or he truly cannot recognize where a blitz is coming from are all 99% coaching issues.

Zimmer makes $5M a year to correct this stuff - either find a way to correct the attitude or spend 20 hours a week going through film with our QB's and OL JUST to identify how blitzes are disguised. And/or give our QB free reign at the LOS.

As a HC, you do NOT simply sit through this stuff week after week, hoping it results in something other than a loss. Hoping ain't a good plan man.
Maybe wishing and praying would work. Cousins has played along time and he's not a stupid person. He saw the overload/blitz and there isn't a player alive that wouldn't do what ever is necessary to avoid getting creamed. Now maybe he was just willing to take a fall down or throw the ball away. If Zim did tell him do what you are told and don't go off script perhaps Cousins said F it I'll protect myself and what happens don't really matter. The WR to the left could run a quick slant and boom he might be gone. A throw up down the sideline was there. Even Cook taking a few steps forward and he would be wide open with nothing in front. Maybe calls were made but nobody understood the language. We saw that early this season. Bottom line is coaching.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

psjordan wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 5:25 pm
J. Kapp 11 wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:00 pm So in a nutshell, you start with a silly play call that sent four receivers on "go" routes against a blitz-happy defense. You've also got the center failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to ID the blitz, Cousins failing to check to a hot route, and Cousins failing to call timeout. It's a total fail by the entire Vikings offense, from coach to quarterback to offensive line.

Is it any wonder this team sucks on offense?
Folks can blame Cousins or Cole, and yes they share culpability, but having coached for years and years this is by FAR a coaching issue.

Whether Cousins' attitude is "hey just doing my job man", he's "just doing it Zim's way like I was told to do" or he truly cannot recognize where a blitz is coming from are all 99% coaching issues.

Zimmer makes $5M a year to correct this stuff - either find a way to correct the attitude or spend 20 hours a week going through film with our QB's and OL JUST to identify how blitzes are disguised. And/or give our QB free reign at the LOS.

As a HC, you do NOT simply sit through this stuff week after week, hoping it results in something other than a loss. Hoping ain't a good plan man.
Yeah, I was just showing this to illustrate what a complete and total failure it was on the part of the Vikings, as a whole. I mean, when do you EVER see the Vikings throw quickly to a hot receiver when the opposing team calls a blitz? It just doesn't happen. Best way to blitz is to get rid of the ball before they can get to the QB. But we don't seem to have that ability.

I agree it's coaching. Some of that might simply be in the form of empowerment. Does Kirk Cousins know these things? After 10 years in the league, I have to believe he does. Do the coaches allow him to do the right thing? Maybe. But do they encourage him and empower him to do them? I definitely have my doubts.

If you remember back to the Rams game in 2017, the most exciting offensive play of the game for the Vikings was Case Keenum hitting Adam Thielen on a short dig route, and Thielen taking it 65 yards to the house. That play was all Keenum. He recognized the blitz, checked with Thielen, and got the ball out immediately. I tried to post the YouTube video, but I never have any luck with it on this message board.

Point being, if Case Keenum can recognize this, then surely Cousins could. If Cousins would have done this against Baltimore, the Vikings likely would have won. Why didn't he do it? Didn't he recognize it? Did he recognize it, but his coaches either wouldn't allow him to check it, or didn't encourage him? We may never know, but I'm with you. Cousins seems like too smart a guy to simply not understand what was going on.

Also, let's not forget ... Mike Zimmer was not a fan of Case Keenum. Maybe it's because Keenum said, "Screw the coaches, I'm doing the right thing." Who knows?
Image
Go ahead. I dare you.
Underestimate this man.
StumpHunter
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

Post by StumpHunter »

J. Kapp 11 wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:21 am
Also, let's not forget ... Mike Zimmer was not a fan of Case Keenum. Maybe it's because Keenum said, "Screw the coaches, I'm doing the right thing." Who knows?
Zimmer wasn't a fan of Keenum because he was a backup level QB. That should be pretty obvious by now.
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Re: Vikings @ Ravens post game

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Teddy was allowed to check out of plays even as a rookie. Bradford was allowed to do it. Case was allowed to do it. Zimmer has stated Cousins is also allowed to, and does, check out of plays.

It sure doesn't seem like he does though and you watch him at the line versus other 10 year vets and the perception is that he just goes with whatever is called. Maybe he is just more subtle with his audibles than a Brady or Rodgers.
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